loader from loading.io

Author Michael Anthony ("Life at Hamilton"): The No-Look Pour Never Goes Well

DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley

Release Date: 05/30/2021

Filmmaker Fernando Andrès & Actor-Producer Jacob Roberts (Rent Free): Filmmaker Fernando Andrès & Actor-Producer Jacob Roberts (Rent Free): "Film Is My Religion"

DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley

Dennis is joined via Zoom by two of the men behind his favorite indie of the year so far Rent Free, co-writer and director Fernando Andrès and actor-producer Jacob Roberts. The film is about two queer, down-on-their-luck best friends Ben (Roberts) and Jordan (played by David Trevino) who hatch a plan to live rent free for a year in Austin, Texas--on friends' sofas or whatever they can fanagle--while they save up to move to New York City to pursue their dreams. Fernando talks about his goal of making a buddy comedy set in a bleak contemporary economic landscape focusing on a kind of queer...

info_outline
Author & Photographer Frankie Frankeny (Love: The Heroic Stories of Marriage Equality): Author & Photographer Frankie Frankeny (Love: The Heroic Stories of Marriage Equality): "We Need To Go From Fear To Fierce"

DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley

Just as we're hitting the 10th Anniversary of Federal Marriage Equality in the US, Dennis is joined via Zoom by Frankie Frankeny, the driving creative force behind the gorgeous and comprehensive new coffee table book Love: The Heroic Stories of Marriage Equality. Frankie recalls how she first became passionate about the cause of marriage equality decades ago, doing entensive research for the book and discovering stories she never knew before and her hope that the book will be available in schools so queer kids can learn their history in a way that her generation never did. She also talks...

info_outline
Documentary subject Kellie Maloney (Knockout Blonde): Documentary subject Kellie Maloney (Knockout Blonde): "I’ve Mixed The Good Of Frank With The Good Of Kellie And Became A Much Better Person"

DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley

Dennis is joined via Zoom from Portugal by former U.K. boxing manager Kellie Maloney to discuss the new documentary about Kellie's life and transition Knockout Blonde: The Kellie Maloney Story. The film, which is now available on VOD, documents her previous life as successful boxing promoter Frank Maloney through her transition to Kellie in 2014 and its aftermath. Kellie talks about falling in love with boxing as a child, taking Lennox Lewis all the way to the Heavyweight Champion, how the physicality of boxing allowed her to vent the stress she was feeling inside and that time Frank...

info_outline
Broadway producer and author Jeffrey Seller (Theater Kid): Broadway producer and author Jeffrey Seller (Theater Kid): "Write That Letter & Make That Call"

DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley

In this special Tonys week episode, Dennis is joined via Zoom by Broadway producer Jeffrey Seller to discuss his book Theater Kid: A Broadway Memoir, which documents his journey from a childhood of family dysfunction and always feeling like an outsider to thriving as a Broadway producer with four Best Musical Tonys to his credit (Rent, Avenue Q, In the Heights and Hamilton). Jeffrey talks about why he decided to write the book, the elementary school teacher who saw what was special in him, always having the self belief to take big swings and confessing his love to his college best friend, who...

info_outline
Frank DeCaro & Jim Colucci (co-programmers of Pride Live!Hollywood): Frank DeCaro & Jim Colucci (co-programmers of Pride Live!Hollywood): "You Know What Sparks Joy? Clutter!"

DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley

Dennis is joined by his friends and past podcast guests Frank DeCaro and Jim Colucci to talk about a brand new arts festival they are co-programming. It's called Pride Live! Hollywood and it takes place June 11th through the 29th at various venues in Hollywood. JIm and Frank talk about the various events on the agenda, including a Norman Lear tribute, a screening and party of Saturday Night Fever with director John Badham and actress Donna Pescow attending, a Golden Girls tribute, the Where The Bears Are documentary A Big Fat Hairy Hit. a Queer as Folk cast reunion as well as screenings...

info_outline
Playwright Tom Jacobson (Tasty Little Rabbit): Playwright Tom Jacobson (Tasty Little Rabbit): "There Are So Many Stories Out There Waiting To Be Found"

DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley

Dennis is joined via Zoom by playwright Tom Jacobson whose latest play Tasty Little Rabbit is currently showing at the Moving Arts Theatre in Los Angeles. The play tells the true story of a 1936 Fascist Italian investigation of pornography charges in Taormina, Sicily. This artistic prosecution uncovers a much darker secret of a 1890s love triangle between photographer Wilhelm Von Gloeden, an a 18 year-old Sicilian boy and a mysterious Irish poet. Tom talks about how he first learned of the true story, visiting Sicily as part of his research, the riveting "Kissing Contest" scene at the play's...

info_outline
Actor Kasey Mahaffy (A Man of No Importance): Actor Kasey Mahaffy (A Man of No Importance): "We Need You To Be More Grounded"

DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley

Dennis is joined via Zoom by actor Kasey Mahaffy who is currently starring as Alfie Byrne, a Dublin bus driver who directs community theater at night, in the musical A Man of No Importance at A Noise Within theater in Pasadena. Kasey talks about relating more to this role than any he's played in the past, how he and the rest of the cast honed their Irish accents, why now is a very meaningful time to be telling this story and what it's like to hear audience members audibly crying while you're trying to play a scene. He also talks about his role in the 2022 L.A. production of Matthew Lopez's...

info_outline
Filmmaker Lovell Holder & Writer-Performer Roger Q. Mason ( Filmmaker Lovell Holder & Writer-Performer Roger Q. Mason ("Lavender Men"}: "Mother’s Got Her Flashlight On All The Time"

DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley

Dennis is joined via Zoom by Director Lovell Holder & Writer-Performer Roger Q. Mason, the duo behind the provocative and beautifully-crafted new film Lavender Men, which is based on Mason's hit stage play of the same name. The story centers on Taffeta (they/them, played by Mason), the put-upon stage manager of a play about Abraham Lincoln. After one too many backstage indignities, Tafetta cracks and decides to take the whole show over and narrate it as their fantasia and things get wild from there. Roger talks about the film's central themes of why do we, as humans, like what we like...

info_outline
Writer-Director Sarah Kambe Holland (Egghead & Twinkie): Writer-Director Sarah Kambe Holland (Egghead & Twinkie): "I Know There's Somebody Who Needs This Movie"

DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley

Dennis is joined via Zoom by filmmaker Sarah Kambe Holland whose new film Egghead and Twinkie flips the gay guy-straight girl trope on its head with the story of a gay girl-straight boy friendship that undergoes some changes after the girl comes out. Sarah talks about starting work on the project at 19, taking inspiration from her own coming out story, shooting a road movie within one hour of Orlando, Florida and having most of her crew be under 25 years old. She also talks about moving to the U.S. from Japan at nine and undergoing serious culture shock, incorporating her own love of animation...

info_outline
Chef Steven Havens (Winner of Season 3 of The Floor): Chef Steven Havens (Winner of Season 3 of The Floor): "We Call Ourselves The Floor-mily"

DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley

In this special bonus episode, Dennis interviews his friend Steven Havens, who just won $250,000 as the last man standing on Season 3 of the Fox game show The Floor. Steven talks about how he came to be on the show, the months of rigorous coaching provided by his game designer husband Jeb (who happens to be Dennis's co-creator on the game You Don't Know My Life!), shooting the entire season over one week in Ireland and the moment, minutes before he actually won, when he thought to himself, 'I got this.' Other topics include: promising his husband that he wouldn't talk smack about the...

info_outline
 
More Episodes

Dennis is joined via Zoom by Michael Anthony, author of the new book Life at Hamilton, which documents his experience as the Bar Manager at the Richard Rogers Theater where the Broadway sensation Hamilton premiered in 2015 and went on to become a global phenomenon. Mike talks about the book’s humble beginnings as social media posts, how they gradually became more and more popular, the time he would spend responding to posts from his followers and how the posts involved into a book. He also talks about what it’s like to be a trained actor and be tending bar in a setting where so many others are living their dreams as performers. He also talks about the lesson his position has taught him: that you can’t always become the thing you’ve dreamed of being…but you can keep finding new things that light you up. He talks about what it was like to be around the Hamilton phenomenon during the Trump Era and recalls the night after the election when Vice President-Elect Mike Pence came to the show. He also talks about his passionate curiosity in what happens after we die and the unlikely butterfly sightings he’s had that make him believe that his father is still with us. He recalls some of the famous people who have come to see Hamilton and shares sweet stories about Amy Schumer, Rosie O’Donnell and Jimmy Kimmel. Other topics include: his first meeting with Hamilton creator Lin Manuel Miranda, what Lin thinks about the book, the moment in Hamilton that always makes him cry, the incredible journey his father made to see him in a show, bartending flashiness, when Obama and Biden came to the show, the incredible power of kindness and what’s the most popular candy at Hamilton.